Ontario’s provincial gambling monopoly has been offered a half-billion dollar lifeline from the local government to ensure it can ride out the COVID-19 closure of its land-based casino operations.

On Monday, the government of Canada’s most populous province confirmed that it had provided a C$500m (US$357m) line of credit to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) gambling monopoly. Finance Minister Rod Phillips – who formerly served as OLG CEO – said the funds were intended to “temporarily support OLG’s operational costs and help meet its contractual obligations over the short-term.”

On March 15, OLG announced an “orderly shutdown” of all its land-based casino operations due to the pandemic. OLG operates 26 casino and slots facilities, most of which are under day-to-day control of third-party operators. OLG spokesman Tony Bitonti told The Record that the closures had “reduced OLG revenue streams by more than half.”

OLG is a major contributor to the provincial budget, having anted up C$2.3b in the 2019-20 fiscal year but Philipps warned in March that the COVID-19 mitigation efforts meant OLG’s contributions would likely fall to just C$809m in 2020-21.